N.Y. group asks caves nationwide to be closed due to bat deaths

ALBANY, N.Y. — An advocacy group alarmed over the mass die-off of bats with white-nose syndrome asked the Department of Interior today to close all bat caves and mines on federal land nationwide.

The Center for Biological Diversity made the request in a petition to Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar. The center also asked for endangered species protection for two types of bat hit hard by white-nose — the eastern small-footed bat and the northern long-eared bat.

AP Photo/Mike Groll, FileScott Crocoll holds a dead Indiana bat in an abandoned mine in Rosendale, N.Y., in this January 2009 file photo.

White-nose is estimated to have killed more than a million bats in nine Eastern states since it was first noticed in New York in 2006. The syndrome is named for the sugary smudges of fungus on affected bats.

Officials from individual states, the U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies have closed caves in hopes of checking the spread of white-nose. Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended closing affected caves based on the suspicion that cavers could unwittingly be spreading the scourge.

Wildlife Service spokeswoman Diana Weaver said the agency is in the process of revising its cave advisory, though it was too early to say what will change. She also said the agency would be looking at endangered species listings given the "unprecedented wildlife health crisis."